Implicit prejudice toward injecting drug users predicts intentions to change jobs among drug and alcohol nurses

The meaning and importance of implicit prejudice is a source of considerable debate. One way to advance this debate is to assess whether implicit prejudice can predict independent variance, beyond that predicted by explicit prejudice, in meaningful and unambiguous behaviors or behavioral intentions. In the current research, drug and alcohol nurses reported their level of stress working with injecting drug users, their job satisfaction, their explicit prejudice toward injecting drug users, and their intentions to leave drug and alcohol nursing. The nurses also completed the Single Category Implicit Association Test, which measured their implicit prejudice toward injecting drug users. Analyses revealed that implicit prejudice was a significant mediator, beyond explicit prejudice and job satisfaction, of the relation between job stress and intention to change jobs.     

Family metaphors and moral intuitions: how conservatives and liberals narrate their lives

This research examines life-narrative interviews obtained from 128 highly religious and politically active adults to test differences between political conservatives and liberals on (a) implicit family metaphors (G. Lakoff, 2002) and (b) moral intuitions (J. Haidt & C. Joseph, 2004). Content analysis of 12 key scenes in life stories showed that conservatives, as predicted, tended to depict authority figures as strict enforcers of moral rules and to identify lessons in self-discipline. By contrast, liberals were more likely to identify lessons learned regarding empathy and openness, even though (contrary to prediction) they were no more likely than conservatives to describe nurturant authority figures. Analysis of extended discourse on the development of religious faith and personal morality showed that conservatives emphasized moral intuitions regarding respect for social hierarchy, allegiance to in-groups, and the purity or sanctity of the self, whereas liberals invested more significance in moral intuitions regarding harm and fairness. The results are discussed in terms of the recent upsurge of interest among psychologists in political ideology and the value of using life-narrative methods and concepts to explore how politically active adults attempt to construct meaningful lives.     

Social representations used by the parents of Mexican adolescent drug users under treatment to explain their children's drug use: gender differences in parental narratives

The aim of this study was to explore the social representations used by the parents of adolescent drug users to explain the onset of drug use. Differences in explanations between the parents of male and female adolescents were also explored. Sixty parents who accompanied their children to four rehabilitation centers in 2004 completed two semi-structured questionnaires. In addition, indepth interviews were applied to a subsample. The explanation of the drug use was carried out through two social representations: the neglectful family and the son or daughter as an inexperienced teen. The parents-son model was well structured; however, the parents-daughter was unstructured, which suggests a higher resonance in the familial group.     

Enter your e-mail address: how German Internet users manage their e-mail addresses.

Writing E-mail is the most popular Internet activity. Meanwhile, many people have more than one E-mail address. The question how people manage their E-mail addresses, more specifically, whether they use them deliberately for different purposes, is the central question of this paper. E-mail addresses vary in the amount of identifying information they convey (e.g., name, gender, status). It is proposed that the amount of identifying information an email address contains is a predictor of usage for a specific purpose. However, it is assumed that not all people choose email addresses in a rational way, according to the optimal fit between amount of identifying information and purpose of the E-mail. Thus, the role of other factors is tested as well. An online survey on German Internet users showed that it is common to have more than one E-mail address. Especially free webmail addresses (freemail) are extremely popular. People used more anonymous E-mail addresses when they expected spam or were concerned about privacy. However, there were also interindividual differences in the management of E-mail addresses.     

A comparison of the family environments of black male and female adolescent alcohol users.

The purpose of this study was to examine black American adolescents' use of alcohol and their perceptions of their family environments. Seventy-one participants between the ages of 12 and 20 from a large mid-Atlantic medical facility, who reported using alcohol, were asked to complete the Family Environment Scale (FES). Users were described as those who drank at least once a week and used medium amounts per occasion. Females were hypothesized to have higher scores on the FES than males (higher scores on the FES suggest a more favorable perception of family functioning). A t test was conducted to compare group means on each subscale of the FES. Analyses of the data indicated that females differed significantly from males (p less than .05) on four of the ten subscales.     

Clinical issues in the assessment of adolescent alcohol and other drug use

Clinicians working with adolescents are routinely faced with the issue that alcohol and other drug (AOD) involvement may be part of the clinical picture either as a primary problem or a contributing factor to other problems or disorders. Fortunately, assessment research in this area has produced several behaviorally oriented and psychometrically sound tools from which to choose for problem identification, referral and treatment of youth suspected of AOD abuse. The aim of this paper is to provide an overview of several issues related to the clinical utility of such assessment tools.     

Brief counseling to reduce AIDS risk in intravenous drug users and their sexual partners: Preliminary results

Intravenous drug users (N = 88) and their sexual partners (N = 45) were randomly assigned to either a brief counseling intervention or an information-brochure only condition (aimed at reducing behavioral risk for HIV infection). At 10 day follow-up, intravenous drug users exposed to brief counseling were more knowledgeable about risk behaviors, and reported higher levels of self-efficacy and communication skill, and more frequent use of condoms and sterilisation of needles. At 90 day follow-up, intravenous drug users were more accepting of guidelines to reduce sex-related risk and reported greater self-efficacy in relation to drugs. Sexual partners who received brief counseling showed a small reduction in unprotected sex (at 90-day follow-up), while those receiving brochures were slightly less likely to use condoms. Methodological problems of the study are discussed.     

Affluent adolescents, depression, and drug use: the role of adults in their lives

The present study examined the association between adult supports to whom affluent youth turn when personally troubled or upset and their self-reported depression and drug use. The sample consisted of 374 affluent seventh graders. Perceived parental closeness played a mediating role in reducing depressive symptomology and drug use. Contrary to hypothesized predictions, other adult supports showed neither mediating nor moderating effect on adjustment. The data show that the presence of other adult supports in the context of low parental closeness actually exacerbates, not moderates, maladjustment. Since this finding is contradictory to the support literature with various populations, which shows the importance of social supports for psychological well-being, the particularity of this population and their potential challenges are highlighted.     

The relationship of parental drug use and parents' attitude concerning adolescent drug use to adolescent drug use

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship of two variables, parental drug use and parental attitude toward adolescent drug use, both as perceived by the adolescent respondent to his or her own use or nonuse of drugs. A sample of 106 drug-using and 96 nondrug-using adolescents was obtained through the use of the anthropological " snowball " technique. All respondents were administered a drug use history profile and a personal data questionnaire. In order to be classed as drug users, respondents had to have been using two or more recreational substances on a regular basis. Nondrug users were those who used no recreational drugs, although individuals who had tried alcohol or tobacco experimentally were included in this group. On the personal data form, respondents were asked to describe their parents' use of alcohol, tobacco, or other substances, and to indicate their parents' attitudes concerning adolescent use of drugs. Parental attitudes were classed as permissive if the respondent indicated that parents were indifferent about drug use, if they accepted a certain range of drugs, or if the decision were left up to the youth. A nonpermissive attitude was defined as one which would not accept drug use by the adolescent. Four 2 x 2 Chi-square analyses were used to determine significance of the relationship between adolescent drug use and parents' use or nonuse of drugs, parents' attitudes about adolescent use or nonuse and actual adolescent use or non-use, and this same attitudinal relationship looking at parent users and nonusers separately.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)     

Father absence and adolescent "problem behaviors": alcohol consumption, drug use and sexual activity

Among the issues faced by adolescents are problems relating to alcohol consumption, drug use, and sexual behavior. A survey of 813 adolescents found that adolescents are most likely to discuss these problems with peers and least likely to discuss them with parents, especially fathers. However, father absence from the home resulted in greater use of and problems with alcohol, marijuana, and sexual activity. This was the case especially for boys. The results obtained underscore the significance of the father as a key figure in the transmission of values and as a deterrent to certain behaviors. The results point to adolescents from fatherless homes, especially boys, as being at risk for problems in the areas noted. This suggests that community agencies providing services to adolescents should make special efforts to incorporate into their programs specially designed services to meet the particular needs of this group. Aspects of such programs are discussed.     

Multidimensional differences between adolescent substance abusers and users

High-school-aged adolescents responded to a 48-item survey about their substance use. From an original sample of 190 respondents, groups were created through consequence variables (e.g., school, family, medical, and legal problems) into abuse (n = 41) and use (n = 115) categories. Variables were organized along multidimensional lines: stimulus (e.g., frequency of substance use, use in school), organismic (e.g., age, grade), and response (e.g., driving a car while under the influence). From 27 comparisons of the abuse and use groups 16 significant differences emerged.     

Good times, bad times: how personal disadvantage moderates the relationship between social dominance and efforts to win

Recent work has linked social dominance orientation (SDO) to ruthless, uncaring individuals who see the world as a competitive jungle. This need to "rule the jungle," then, should become activated when high SDOs are in positions that threaten their chances of victory. In Study 1, the authors manipulated advantage and disadvantage in the form of resources; in an ensuing task, they observed higher levels of greed only among disadvantaged high SDOs. In Study 2, high SDOs with less opportunity to compete relative to others evidenced significantly more extra-effort to win, even though their effort broke the rules. In Study 3, the authors replicated this effect and demonstrated that extra-effort predicted increased beliefs in actual performance, which in turn predicted decisions to argue for a higher score. In sum, the results provide support for the notion of SDO reflecting underlying needs to compete and win at all costs.     

Some gender differences in alcohol and polysubstance users

Within the past 20 years, public and professional attention has focused on the legitimacy of research and treatment of substance abuse in women as a "special population." Recent efforts, however, have not as yet closed the gap in knowledge about factors promoting or perpetuating alcohol and other substance use problems in women. Materials that are presented in this article were selected to provide a broad spectrum of information about biological, psychological, and sociocultural aspects of substance abuse as it affects women. Data reported include findings from several studies conducted in our laboratories that have examined these effects. Overall, the discussion summarizes past knowledge, reviews current findings, points to unanswered questions, and concludes with a series of research recommendations that emerge from empirical data.     

Helping affluent families help their acting-out,alienated, drug abusing adolescent

Abstract

The article outlines the steps in Action Counseling, a normological, problem-solving method, which capitalizes on the described strengths and modal characteristics of poor families to help them mobilize and organize cooperatively for the tasks of solving family problems and improving their situation. Steps include setting a theme, identifying and clarifying positively stated goals, designing mutually agreed upon action plans, overcoming obstacles, obtaining commitments, following-through, and following-up.     

HIV infection and drug users: Setting up support groups

The emergence of Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) infection has highlighted the need for the development of risk reduction strategies among drug users. A network of support and self help, whilst fully developed among gay men, has been slow to develop with drug users. Possible reasons for this are examined. Examples of this type of approach in Britain and other countries are reviewed. The positive aspects of encouraging the development of self help groups are discussed. The lesons learned from the first 6 months of a drug users support group are described.     

Correspondence and mediational properties of the Fishbein model: An application to adolescent alcohol use

The generalizability of the Fishbein model for behavior prediction was extended to a new field behavior, alcohol drinking by adolescents. The model's two components (i.e., attitudes and normative beliefs) varied in their predictive importance depending on the behavior's situational context. Following this field demonstration, two issues related to properties affecting the model's predictive effectiveness were investigated. First, it was found that the predictability of alcohol-drinking intentions (BI) declined when attitudes (A_act) and normative beliefs (NB) did not correspond with BI in terms of alcohol type (beer, liquor, or wine) and drinking situation (home, party, or pub). A second experiment tested the hypothesis that exogenous variables (those other than A_act and NB) would have a direct influence on BI. A comprehensive test was provided within the context of Jessor's multivariate predictive system for adolescent alcohol use. Present data indicate only a marginal increase in explained variance occurred when applying this system, thereby generally indicating the sufficiency of the Fishbein model's two components.     

Parents' disclosure of their own concerns to their adolescent children

This study examines middle-aged parents' disclosure about their own lives and current concerns, with their late-adolescent children. Three hundred seventy-two parents of college freshmen, averaging 47 years of age, participated by filling out an anonymous questionnaire that asked about 28 topics, varying in intimacy, of concern to adults. The subjects indicated whether they had discussed each topic with their child, and, if they had, the motivations that prompted them to do so. The data revealed that mothers disclosed more than did fathers, and they were more likely to cite “venting,”“asking advice,” and “seeking emotional support” as reasons for disclosure; fathers were more likely to cite “trying to change his/her behavior” as a rationale for disclosure. Child's gender did not affect disclosure rates, but sons and daughters were disclosed to for different reasons. Divorced parents disclosed more than did parents from continuously intact families, and they cited somewhat different reasons for disclosure.